Monthly Archives: September 2016

Lead poisoning. We prefer to stay unaware, safe in the comfort of our homes, treating the issue like it never existed. That is until it comes down to haunt us, making us wish that we’d taken some basic precautions earlier. Lead replacement. A much talked about issue. Something everyone agrees is a must. But an issue that very few wish to deal with. The extra effort and costs in front of something that may or may not happen and isn’t the easiest or the most obvious to detect makes us want to push the dirt under the rug.

The Flint water crisis brought lead poisoning at the forefront of American news, and this increased the attention we pay towards testing for lead exposure. But while the Flint issue highlighted lead poisoning in old pipes, young children can be exposed to lead through all kinds of sources, ranging from paint and soil to toys and even candy. So much so that the Center for Disease Control believes that more than 0.5 million children between the ages of 1 to 5 had high levels of blood in the year 2010.

Many find lead testing to be confusing, so we decided to help you figure out all you need to know about testing for lead in children.

When to Test for Lead?

State laws and the medical industry have different opinions on when to get kids tested for lead, and whether you should have the blood levels analyzed. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors should advise parents on the benefits of lead replacement and risk of having things like lead paint in the house. Blood levels should only be tested if there are reasons to believe that the child is at risk. However, state laws may require all kids to be tested for poisoning at specific ages. “Having a parent concerned tips the balance,” says Dr. Megan Sandel, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center. Simply put, parents who are worried about the issue should get their kids tested irrespective of whether they are at obvious risks or not.

The Less Painful Method May Not Be the Best

Sure, you want to save the child from the pain of a venous blood testing method, but finger-stick, heel-stick and capillary tests may not be the perfect methods for collecting blood samples. “A prick to the finger is quicker and easier,” explains Dr. Sandel as it can be difficult to find a vein to draw blood in a child, and parents might not be comfortable seeing their infants cry either Moreover, finger-sticks can be done in the field, whereas an IV test needs to be conducted in the doctor’s office. However, the downside of a finger-stick is that it can result in false positive results, something that many parents have painfully learned.

In-Office Results Vs. The Lab

One of the main differences between the two is the time taken to generate results. Doctors usually send samples to labs for analysis. The pediatrician contacts the parents when the samples are ready, and this can take up to a week. A faster method is the LeadCare II Blood Lead Test System that can offer results within minutes so that the doctor can get back to the patient while they’re waiting at the office. Courtney Lias from the FDA believes that this test can be a real boon as it offers easy access, thereby allowing for more people to get tested for lead poisoning. If the levels are high, doctors can offer immediate solutions and lead replacement ideas to remove lead from the child’s environment.

Safe Levels of Lead

No level of lead is safe for kids. Before the year 2012, the CDC believed that levels of 10 mg / dl or more should trigger screening and testing procedures and demand lead replacement strategies. However, the allowed level of lead has since dropped to 5 mg / dl. While this sounds easy, things become complicated for kids with levels below 5. Lower levels may mean that there is no lead in the child’s system as the testing is accurate within 1 – 2 points.

Radiation poisoning and the lack of radiation shielding has been one of the biggest concerns facing deep space astronauts for decades. Proper measures that helped protect our modern-day explorers in deep space were amiss, that is until an EU-funded project, the SR2S (Space Radiation Superconducting Shield) project, actually came up with a tangible solution.

Researchers now possess the expertise, the knowledge as well as the tools they need to create effective radiation shielding materials required to protect astronauts from deep space galactic cosmic rays, thereby diminishing their exposure to the risk of developing certain types of cancer.

To truly determine the possibility of coming up with a safe and secure measure for deep space radiation shielding, this project tried to overcome one of the biggest challenges, the weight of the magnet, by focusing its energies on superconductors as these materials do not offer electrical resistance at incredibly low temperatures, something that is all too common in deep space. Since superconductor materials only work in extremely cold environments which are not higher than 0, deep space offers the perfect use for this kind of technology as well.

Over the course of the project, researchers came up with a number of radiation shielding materials that could solve the challenge at hand through proposed structures. One of the most promising structures has been called the pumpkin structure, an active shield that is incredibly lightweight and works by avoiding the generation of secondary particles to offer effective shielding by reducing the materials that are crossed by incident particles.

Thanks to this new structure, the magnetic shield turned out to be 3000 times stronger than earth’s own shield and this should be enough to offer a 10 meter field which deflects cosmic rays around the spacecraft, thereby offering the desired level of protection to deep space astronauts. MgB2 (magnesium diboride) has also been defined as the material of choice, and this material is already being used by companies in all kinds of lead free shielding applications that range from magnetic systems for transportation to x-ray shielding and medical applications.

While it may take many more years for the technology to be ready for use in deep space missions, further tests are being planned out to offer short and mid-term solutions as well. Until a workable plan comes up, we’re no closer to those coveted deep space missions that augment a new era in exploration, but the project has certainly helped us understand that deep space missions are no longer a distant dream, but an up and coming reality.

Big game hunting.An interesting concept.A fascinating adventure.But only effective when you have the right bullet. A bullet placement and design theory has come under the scanner. Some believe that it works and is exciting, but most others believe that it often fails dramatically and is incredibly risky. Some term this approach as frangible ammo or explosive, but inadequately so, as these bullets cannot explode, but they can certainly break down under pressure, causing particles to scatter throughout the tissue of the animal. Most varmint shooters are quite familiar with the effect as the frangible bullet often tends to explode the animal when applied to a 2-pound rodent.

Many deer hunters believe that frangible ammunition can have the same effect when applied to the lungs or heart of their target, and some even manage to prove it by carefully placing the ammo between into the lung chest cavity and bringing the animal down in one smooth sweeping motion. But this doesn’t really mean that these bullets are ideal for targeting game animals.

However, bullet designers believe that frangible ammo should only be used on predators whose size doesn’t exceed the coyote such as rodents, jackrabbits, etc. If you’re looking for ammunition to use while shooting deer, go for those ‘deer’ bullets. These bullets have been designed to strike the perfect compromise between bullet expansion and retaining mass for proper penetration. Simply put, these frangible bullets offer the best of three worlds – energy transfer, penetration and tissue destruction.

Since frangible ammunition has been designed for maximum expansion, it can create massive destruction when it manages to enter the most vulnerable organs such as the lungs or the heart. However, if you shoot the bullet into a muscle group or a bone, it can explode, leaving a mess behind.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to choosing this kind of bullet for deer shooting. It is common that the animal suddenly senses the hunter’s presence and turns to run at the very moment your hands click the trigger. By the time your trigger pull is complete and the firing pin falls into place, the place that was once occupied by the animal’s chest is now occupied by another body part. The moment the bullet impacts this part, you end up with disastrous results and nasty flesh wounds. On the other hand, high-speed frangible bullets can successfully bring down mule deer, pronghorns as well as whitetails when successfully shot. The energy transfer results in a clean, quick and nearly painless kill, terminating the life within moments, making sure that the animal doesn’t have to suffer for a long time.

Simply put, frangible ammunition is something that simply cannot be ignored. If you’re a calm, careful shooter and a good shot, using frangible ammo can be a great option. But the moment you begin to rush your shots, you end up with large flesh wounds. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why bullet manufacturers still don’t recommend the frangible for deer hunting.

Open plan offices are truly on the rise. Gone are those days when productivity, efficiency and communication all had to bow down in front of designated cabins, corporate structures and office politics. Today, office buildings are anything but private. Not only have most of the cabins given way to private cubicles in a large shared space, offices are now being constructed with thinner flooring slabs and large unsupported spans as well. One of the biggest drawbacks of such designs is the ‘bounce’, the tendency when the flooring begins to make noises under the weight of the people who walk across the floor, a huge nuisance for anyone working in a corporate environment.

To counteract this nuisance and to help in damping down the office, Professors John Wilson and Emad Gad and members of Swinburne’s Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure developed flooring using vibration damping material that is not only cost efficient to fit existing office modules, but is incredibly compact as well. This module makes use of heavy plastics to force the bounce to ‘die down’ and it is already being used across offices in the UK and in Australia.

The problem seems trivial. After all, why would you bother about silly vibrations and look to revamp the entire flooring? Why change anything at all? Is vibration dampening really worth the effort? A few questions running through your mind. Well, think of it this way. Studies show that movements as small as a tenth of a millimeter can cause major discomfort for employees seated at the desks in a shared cubicle space. Such has been its impact that design guidelines are now using the highest permissible foot traffic vibration limit into consideration while constructing new office buildings. So would you really want to ignore something that can potentially break down employee productivity?

These vibrations can be easily reduced simply by damping them with added weight, using #high density materials and increasing the stiffness of the floor using structural beams. However, these approaches are only possible during construction. “Floors that suffer excessive vibration due to people walking can be rendered unusable, even though they are perfectly safe. Until now, there was no proven technology that could be economically and efficiently applied to fix such problems,” says Emad Gad. His team has also come up with an innovative solution, a damper that is quick and easy to install and cost effective as well.

This vibration dampening feature consists of a number of viscoelastic rubber flat beams that have been sandwiched between steel plates, fixed at one end, and weighed down at the other. The simplicity and beauty of design lies in the fact that it is very cheap and simple to construct and needs no electrical power whatsoever. It is easy to install in most sub-floor gaps found in office buildings and can reduce vibrations by as much as 50%, working wonders in reducing employee discomfort.